About hopeful pedagogies

The Hopeful Pedagogies blog was started in order to capture all the information generated at a colloquium held at Stellenbosch University, Western Cape, South Africa, on 19 November 2010. More information about the purpose of the colloquium and the programme is provided below. Now that the colloquium is over, the blog is intended as: a repository for useful information about teaching for the public good, especially in the South African context, and as a channel for dialogue and debate about issues such as the “public good”, “hope”, the curriculum and teaching in higher education. All students, academics or theorists who are interested to contribute articles, opinion pieces, suggestions or resources should contribute directly onto the blog, or write to me directly at: bleibowitz@sun.ac.za. (Brenda Leibowitz)

The purpose of higher education is to contribute towards the economic and technological development of society, and at the same time, to contribute towards democracy and citizenship. Stellenbosch University sees itself as contributing to the public good in many ways, including via its research and community interaction, as well as via its direct teaching. The kinds of graduates we wish to produce are described in the Education White Paper (1997), the profile of the Stellenbosch University graduate, and in various professional board descriptions. The specific aspects of the kind of graduate that could contribute towards the social good, for example in relation to the Millenium Development Goals, are given consideration in the Development Discourses research project in which Stellenbosch University participated in 2009. A seminar to consider examples of good practice for teaching SU students in relation to the public good was held in August 2009. In the light of the above, the reworking of academic programmes in response to the Higher Education Qualifications Framework alignment process and the current spotlight on “hope” at Stellenbosch University, a one day colloquium will be held in order to consider the following:

the kind of graduate attributes the University’s programmes may be aiming towards;

examples of good practice with regard to realizing graduate attributes for the social good in the curriculum;

the kind of academic who is able to embed the teaching for these attributes in the curriculum;

the institutional arrangements which would support the flourishing of academics and students for the public good.

Contributions at the colloquium will be used in several possible ways: as resources for teaching and learning on a CTL website; as submissions for a book on teaching for the public good; as pointers towards the revision of the SU Teaching and Learning Policy.